Awakening

A plague was haunting the world, it was a curse cast by the old gods, when the people turned to other faiths. Three towers had been built, and those who took refuge in the towers were protected by the magic forces inside. None outside survived. The old gods ravaged the world and planted their seeds, creating new monsters walking the land.

Inside the towers, the people practiced their arcane crafts, and over the years, a number of schools emerged, each with a particular focus, and each dedicated to a deity. Nine schools there were, three in each tower, and since all towers had been isolated they had no knowledge of each other.

Hierarchies had developed inside the towers, and as part of the heritage of the old world: there was a class of masters, who had attained the highest degree or magical awakening; there was a class of adepts, who had attained the magical knowledge; there was the soldiers; and there was the servants, who did all menial labour. Inside the towers, there was no death, and all lived without dying, but also without really living.

Before the curse, the world had been populated by many peoples, cities and kingdoms. The towers were built by the masters of their age, as focus points of their power and wisdom. A wisdom that crystallized into new principles of understanding, which took the form of new gods that unleashed a divine war upon the old gods. It ended in the defeat and imprisonment of the old gods, but before they had been completely defeated a weave of taint was cast, a curse which drove humans insane, killing each other mindlessly, some turning into monsters or the undead. Being named after the old gods, the curse in time became known as the Fogs of Maglivyn.

The towers, being completely isolated for almost a thousand years, each having their own magical systems, and each focusing on a particular idea or mentality. One tower focused on the principles of understanding the living force and life, to cleanse the curse by pure life force. Another tower focused on deeper understanding, and magical knowledge, learning how to banish the curse by the focus of will. The third tower absorbed the curse, becoming part of it, and they learned to control it by being in it, though at a terrible cost.

After the towers started awakening again to the world, and opening to embrace it, two of them formed an alliance of peace and prosperity; but they saw that the third tower had been lost to their eyes, it had become the manifestation point of the curse, whether in control of it or being controlled by it unknown.

Life inside the towers was no real life, it was a prison of time, and it was sustained by pure magical force. No need to eat, no need to sleep, just a state of endless awareness. Outside was like a thick grey fog, through which the sun would barely penetrate.

Once the heavy mists of the curse had started to disperse, a raven landed on the window sill one morning, high up in one of the towers, the Tower of Tirvalon, where the masters had been calling out for signs of life. Being masters they could talk to the raven, and sent it off with a message. When the raven arrived at the first tower it found, the Tower of Cellimdar, it was greeted with much joy, and soon it returned with a reply, a message of friendship.

The raven was again sent off to find the last tower, but this time it did not return...

Thus it was that two of the towers joined in an alliance, while the third remained in obscurity - for the time being.